1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a determination apparatus which determines the occurrence of an erroneous application of the accelerator rather than the brake.
2. Related Art
It is a well-known technique to detect a vehicle driver's erroneous application of the accelerator rather than the brake and, upon detection of such an erroneous application of the accelerator, to limit the drive force of the vehicle or to apply braking to the vehicle. For example, JP-A-2005-273495 or JP-A-2009-190597 discloses a technique in which the occurrence of an erroneous application of the accelerator is determined based such as on an accelerator opening caused by the driver of the vehicle (pressing force applied to the accelerator by the driver).
However, the technique mentioned above alone may not always necessarily realize accurate detection of an erroneous application of the accelerator.
For example, when a vehicle has an impact from outside, such as by being hit from behind by another vehicle, the driver of the hit vehicle would be shocked and may mistakenly press the accelerator pedal intending to press the brake pedal. Also, in entering a small-radius curve in a vehicle, if the speed of entering the curve becomes higher than the driver's intention, the driver may accidentally press the accelerator pedal rather than the brake pedal.
It is very unlikely that, when a driver is involved in the situations as mentioned above, the driver would intentionally apply the accelerator as in normal traveling. Therefore, in such situations, use of normal criteria for determining erroneous application of the accelerator may lead to the increase of erroneous determination that the accelerator is not being erroneously pressed, although the accelerator is actually being erroneously pressed.